per capita murders by guns
With the gruesome VT and NASA killings, everybody’s pointing finger at America’s gun culture again. Nationmaster has an interesting but badly done map on the per capita murders by guns. Outliers skew the color scheme to the point that it’s effectively meaningless. But the US does seem to rank pretty high (#8, over 5 times that of the next 1st world country, Switzerland) on the bar chart though.
Now, to be fair, you don’t really need a gun to kill. The numbers on per capita total murders seem better, with the US ranking 24. But it’s still the deadliest among industrialized nations, and 52% higher than the next in line, Finland. Before making final judgment, I think one still needs to adjust for 1) manslaughter figures (due to difference in legal systems), 2) total surface area and population (i.e. a more complex society). So, perhaps a cartogram to truly illustrate the theme.
Before some of you scream murder, I’m actually anti-gun*_^
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